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Clementa Pinckney answered God’s call  to go  on the modern Emmaus road and reach others to bring the light to the darkness.

Reverend Pickney said:

In life, we are all faced with the opportunity to serve. It is at times a hard choice to make but those hard choices yield great rewards. Those rewards are mostly for others and not for ourselves. That’s what service is all about.

He heard the call to preach at the age of thirteen and received his first appointment to pastor at the age of eighteen. He  served the following charges: Young’s Chapel-Irmo, The Port Royal Circuit, Mount Horr-Yonges Island, Presiding Elder of the Wateree District and Campbell Chapel, Bluffton.

 His final anointing was to serves as the pastor of historic Mother Emanuel A.M.E. in Charleston, South Carolina. It should be noted that his great-grandfather, Reverend Lorenzo Stevenson, sued the Democratic party to end white-only primaries, according to the Charleston Post and Courier. So one can assume that there was already a calling on is life to right things for people according to the Beatitudes.

 Rev. Pinckney was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1996 at the age of twenty-three. In 2000, he was elected to the State Senate at the age of twenty-seven. He was s one of the youngest persons and the youngest African-American in South Carolina to be elected to the State Legislature. He represents Jasper, Beaufort, Charleston, Colleton, and Hampton Counties. His committee assignments include Senate Finance, Banking and Insurance, Transportation, Medical Affairs and Corrections and Penology.

 At each point in his life he knew hat he had to fulfill his the calling Christ put on his life. He also knew what it meant to serve America as a person of God. Christ understood politics. Politics are at the center of the story of Jesus. His historical life ended with a political execution. Crucifixion was used by Rome for those who systematically rejected imperial authority, including chronically defiant slaves and subversives who were attracting a following. Jesus often referred to the world of God. During Christ’s time the use of the word, “kingdom” was political. Jesus’ hearers knew about  kingdoms—the kingdom of Herod, the kingdom of Rome.

The miniseries The Bible and  A.D The Bible Continues have been very succinct in showing us a deeper dive into those early days. Those earlier followers knew that the kingdom of God had to be something different from those kingdoms. Yet, they knew that they were called to put “boots on the ground” for “the kingdom”. The Lord’s Prayer speaks of God’s kingdom coming on earth, even as it already exists in heaven. It is about the transformation of this world—what life would be like on earth if God were ruler and the lords of the domination systems were not. Jesus was clear that our message on earth could cost us our lives. That we disturb the atmosphere. We change things.

Ponder these two scriptures

Matthew 24:9

“Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. –
John 16:2

“They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.
Clementa Pinckney was very cognizant of that. Watch the below video and be inspired by his life.
Make sure to read:

How Shooting Victim Clementa Pickney’s Service As Senator And Pastor Calls Us To Do Something  was originally published on elev8.hellobeautiful.com